Page 7 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
A chill ran down her spine and she closed her eyes, trying hard to convince herself not to move and not to look back. How close could that thing be? How big was it? She felt the air freeze in her lungs.
She could jump down to the plateau. It was risky but doable. Then, she’d be right in front of the opening, and one step away from safety. She had to decide. To stay still, or make the jump. She tried to calm down.
Her only objective was to get home safe. She trusted herself to make that jump, she didn’t trust the dragon to not try and kill her. ...She had to move, fast.
Alezya took a deep breath, visualizing the jump, doing everything she could think of to increase her chances. She shifted her weight to her right foot, moved her shoulders forward, and then...
Then, a gigantic paw suddenly appeared on her left, and violently pushed her back against the mountain.
The air left her lungs before she could scream.
She felt her right shoulder brutally hit the rocks while the strange heat of large scales rubbed against her left one. She shivered, and unable to resist, turned her head to see the beast.
The orange dragon was right there, staring at her with one of its eyes.
It was a big, dark gray eye, shiny like obsidian, polished as a mirror. She could see herself in it, while well aware of the gigantic iris moving. The beast’s breathing was sending widewaves of hot air against the flank of the mountain, making its whole body slowly move along.
Alezya tried to choke down a cry of pain or fear.
That thing could eat her at any second, and her mind was blank with no idea what to do. Tears were just forming in her eyes as if her body knew before her the fatal outcome of this.
After a while of her staring into the dragon’s eye and the dragon staring back, she started to come back to her senses. The pain was numb, manageable. The fear too. Her will to survive was starting to take over, and her gaze hardened.
“...Let me go,” she suddenly mumbled through her lips.
The dragon answered with a strangely weak growl, but enough to make her whole body shiver in fear.
Still, Alezya bit her lip and repeated herself.
“Let me go, Dragon,” she hissed.
She had no idea if it could hear her, let alone understand. It sounded like it was listening, but she had no clue what that gigantic monster could be thinking of its prey trying to order her freedom. It didn’t matter.
Right now, Alezya was gathering all of her bravery to stand against that predator, to not give up.
“...I have a daughter,” she muttered. “I have a baby girl, and without me, she won’t have anybody. If you kill my child’s mother, I swear, Dragon, I will curse you, your parent, and the next ten generations after you.”
The dragon growled, a bit louder, but this time Alezya didn’t flinch.
She just glared back, as if defying it. She was scared, but she was even more scared for her daughter’s life. She just knew Lumie would be condemned without her, and she couldn’t have that. She would have died to protect her baby, but this time, she had to survive.
“Release me,” she cried, both an order and a supplication. “Release me, Dragon.”
The orange dragon didn’t move at all, but it strangely moved its head, as if tilting it. ...Was it actually listening?
Alezya’s heart was beating fast, hoping, praying she could survive this.
She decided to try to move. She was pinned against the mountain, the dragon’s palm against her, but its claws were dug into the rocks. She could move a bit. She tried to wriggle her way out of its clutches, slowly but surely.
The dragon growled a bit but, strangely, it didn’t move, only watching her do so. The tiny human in its grasp trying to free herself was perhaps entertaining, Alezya had no idea. Moreover, she quickly found out it was worth nothing: she was tightly held, the bit of movement she could make was useless. Frustrated, she kept pushing against the warm orange scales, trying to get even an inch closer to that entrance; the dragon was taking its time before eating her, and she wasn’t going to stop trying in the meantime. This time though, it seemed as if the beast understood what she was doing.
Without warning, it slowly lifted its paw that was holding her against the mountain, which meant Alezya wasn’t its prisoner anymore, but also that she was now losing all ground to support herself on.
When she realized her imminent fall, her reflexes took over: she grabbed the dragon’s scales in front of her, leaned forward, and pushed herself toward the platform. It was the messiest jump of her life, and without relief, she landed brutally on some solid, lean platform. Thankfully, her fall was completely harmless due to the thick layer of snow.
There, Alezya spun herself to face the dragon again, her instincts telling her not to turn her back to it. It hadn’t moved. For some reason, the orange dragon had just seen her jumpout of its grasp without reacting, still watching her with that paw hanging in the air just inches away from her. Alezya slowly stepped back into the entrance, watching for any sudden movement, but it didn’t come.
The dragon just stared at her, its expression indecipherable.
